Expanding your at-home workforce can have a significant effect on IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, and corporate culture. Progent has 20 years of experience assisting businesses of all sizes to design, deploy, administer, tune, and troubleshoot IT environments that support a remote workforce. Progent can help your Carlsbad organization to select the appropriate technologies and adhere to best practices in building and maintaining a secure virtual solution for teleworkers that facilitates collaboration and delivers maximum value. Progent can provide support services that go from on demand expertise for helping you past challenging technical roadblocks to comprehensive project management or co-management to help you successfully complete mission-critical initiatives.

Progent can help Carlsbad, California businesses to with any aspect of creating a high-functioning remote work environment by providing infrastructure configuration services, IP voice troubleshooting, video conferencing support, collaboration platform customization and training, public cloud integration, helpdesk outsourcing, endpoint security, data protection solutions, and centralized management.

Infrastructure for Teleworkers
Setting up the network infrastructure required for a remote workforce can be especially complicated if you must accommodate a combination of personal equipment like desktop computers and laptops, routers, and Wi-Fi appliances from various manufacturers and with a variety of operating systems and firmware releases. Progent's experience providing remote help for both legacy as well as current technologies in remote office solutions enables you to make efficient use of your available infrastructure and offers fast access to expertise for implement necessary updates. Services offered by Progent to assist your company to create a high-functioning telecommuting infrastructure include:

  • VPN technology makes it possible to establish a secure tunnel for authorized at-home employees to use IT assets situated at your corporate data center or in the cloud. Progent can help you to configure and maintain VPN connections between your at-home workforce and your key IT resources by providing remote VPN configuration consulting. For organizations using Cisco's ASA security appliances, Progent's Cisco ASA experts can assist your at-home workers to set up Cisco's popular AnyConnect client software for safe VPN connections for a wide selection of devices such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, Apple iOS, Linux, and Google Android.
  • Virtual Desktop Infrastructure platforms enable an at-home worker to view and interact with a data center PC's desktop. This provides network managers significant control over the computing environment of at-home employees and offers remote users a consistent and more productive experience. Progent's VDI services include Windows Remote Desktop support and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops VDI expertise.
  • Routers attach at-home computer networks to the Internet and typically support VPN tunnels, local Wi-Fi connectivity, and firewall services. Progent offers top-tier remote consulting for integrating routers from a variety of manufacturers. See router integration services from Cisco-certified experts.
  • Home Wireless networks, typically shared by the whole family and visitors, are commonly used by at-home employees to access their Internet router for work. This can cause performance as well as cybersecurity problems. Progent can help you to mitigate these problems by providing expertise that include Cisco Aironet configuration consulting, Cisco Meraki WiFi deployment expertise, and Ubiquiti WiFi AP integration help.
  • Internet access solutions impact the speed and reliability of connections between telecommuters and the corporate data center. Mission-critical applications may require redundant Internet access in the event the normal connection breaks. Progent can provide expertise for picking Internet service providers, selecting appropriate bandwidth and data volume offerings, and configuring redundant Internet access. Refer to Internet connectivity integration services.

VoIP Integration for At-Home Workers
Expanding the business PBX system to accommodate teleworkers is vital to maintaining a productive at-home workforce. A broad range of cloud-based VoIP products are used by small and mid-size businesses to support teleworkers. Many larger organizations depend on Cisco's current or legacy products for VoIP management. Progent can help businesses of any size to design or tune a remote IP voice service that delivers the versatility, transparency and security needed for at-home workers. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE IP Voice consultants can provide advanced support to help organizations tune their current Cisco IP voice systems to handle an expanding remote workforce.

  • Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) delivers high-end telephony capabilities to devices like VoIP phones, media processing products, VoIP gateways, and multimedia software used throughout the network. Unified Communications Manager manages additional mixed media services like unified messaging, voice/video conferencing, and team collaboration networks. For details about Progent's CUCM support, refer to CUCM expertise.
  • Cisco CallManager is Cisco's earlier call-processing agent and has been superseded by Cisco Unified CM or CUCM. Progent can assist you to maintain your existing CallManager environment or migrate smoothly to Cisco's current IP telephony products. For details about Progent's support services for CallManager and Cisco's other legacy IP voice platforms, visit Cisco CallManager consulting.
  • Cisco IP Gateways provide connectivity with PSTN networks and with clients working beyond the corporate perimeter like at-home workers. Progent offers expert support for Cisco's legacy IP gateways such as the UC520, UC540 and UC560 series and for modern Cisco SIP gateways. See Cisco Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) gateway integration consulting.
  • Other VoIP Platforms supported by Progent's consultants include Vonage, RingCentral and 8x8. Progent can assist you to enhance your WAN architecture to support these VoIP solutions and deliver online configuration and debugging services.

Voice/Video Conferencing for Telecommuters
A wide selection of voice/video conferencing products from major vendors support online meetings, video and voice conferencing, chat, and screen/content sharing for both onsite users and telecommuters. Many companies use multiple products to meet the needs of their various partners and clients. Progent's communications experts can help your organization to manage your current voice/video conferencing environment and optimize the engagement of your at-home workforce.

  • Skype for Business is Microsoft's leading unified communications product that supports real-time presence, instant messaging, voice and video calling and conferencing as well as the transparent integration of these functions within Office desktop and Microsoft 365 productivity software including PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Progent can provide the skills of Microsoft-certified consultants who can assist your company to deploy and manage Skype for Business clients to support your at-home employees. For details about Progent's support expertise for Skype for Business, see Skype for Business integration experts.
  • FaceTime is Apple's group video phone app for compatible iOS and macOS devices. FaceTime runs on Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connections. Newer editions of FaceTime support up to 32 simultaneous users for video calls. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for FaceTime, visit Progent's FaceTime configuration expertise.
  • Webex Meeting Center provides remote conferencing for virtually all computing devices. Offered via Cisco's Webex Cloud platform, Webex capabilities include sharing specific content or screens, presentations that incorporate rich media such as Microsoft PowerPoint, network-based recording, plus editing and playback for future reference. To learn more about Progent's support expertise for Cisco Webex as well as for additional video conferencing products from Cisco, visit Progent's Webex Meeting Center support services.
  • Teams is Microsoft's next-generation replacement for Skype for Business. Teams acts as a portal for conversations, contacts, and information with capabilities such as IP voice and video conferencing, persistent chat, plus data sharing. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft Teams as well as for other Microsoft 365 products, see Progent's Microsoft Teams consulting services.
  • Additional Voice/Video Conferencing Apps supported by Progent include Google Meet, Amazon Chime, Zoom, and Slack. Progent can provide integration and troubleshooting services for these conferencing platforms and help your business to optimize your network infrastructure to host them.

Microsoft Integrated Collaboration Platforms for Telecommuters
Microsoft's collaboration platforms are tightly integrated with Microsoft's familiar Office and Microsoft 365 families, providing a rich environment of applications that create a cohesive user experience for exchanging data and ideas throughout a corporate network and on a wide range of endpoints. Progent has delivered online consulting services for Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange since their first releases and can assist businesses to configure these critical collaboration platforms to optimize the productivity of your at-home workforce.

SharePoint Server Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersSharePoint uses web sites to allow collaboration and information sharing by providing policy-based delivery of content, workflow, and utilities for looking through company-wide information silos. SharePoint permits you to build protected web portals that permits remote workers to see and update aggregated business intelligence by means of Intranets (Wikis), Blogs, social sites, and Web Parts. To find out about Progent's SharePoint consulting services, refer to SharePoint integration and application development expertise.

Exchange Deployment Experts for At-Home WorkersExchange and Exchange Online offer secure collaboration features including public folders, shared mailboxes, and shared calendars and contacts. Progent's Microsoft certified Exchange experts can show you how to activate and utilize these features for your at-home workers. For details about Progent's Exchange consulting services, visit deployment consulting services for Exchange.

Microsoft Onedrive Configuration Consultants for At-Home WorkersOneDrive is Microsoft's shared cloud-based storage service, similar to GoogleDrive. Remote users can store files to the OneDrive service, and co-workers anywhere can retrieve them safely through a web browser. Included with Office and Microsoft 365, OneDrive enables home workers to jointly author documents. Edits made offline are uploaded when you go back online. To learn about Progent's support services for Microsoft OneDrive, refer to Onedrive integration consulting.

Public Cloud Integration for Teleworkers
Progent can provide fast and affordable online support for helping businesses to build, maintain and repair cohesive network architectures that incorporate internal data centers, at-home workers, branches, and public cloud resources. Progent offers expertise for all modes of cloud service such as Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Progent can help teleworkers resolve problems with public cloud access, authentication, and security.

Microsoft Azure Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft Azure is a popular platform for public cloud software and services that allows you to use infrastructure, servers, and critical apps hosted on Microsoft's massive cloud. Azure includes more than one hundred cloud-based services such as hosting for Windows and Linux-powered virtual machines, scalable cloud storage, messaging, app development with Visual Studio, and backup/restore. Progent can help your organization to set up VMs on Azure Virtual Machines, configure storage on Azure Storage services, unify identity control with Azure Active Directory, and design backup and restore solutions with Azure Backup. Progent can also help you create protected access to Azure for telecommuters by configuring and debugging firewalls and VPN IPsec tunnels. For details about Progent's support services for Azure, go to Microsoft Azure consulting services.

Microsoft 365 Integration Services for TelecommutersMicrosoft 365, formerly called Office 365, is Microsoft's growing suite of client productivity software and cloud services offered on a subscription basis. Office applications and cloud services are provided in a variety of bundles intended for users ranging from individuals and households to major enterprises. Progent offers fast and easy online contact with experts familiar with Microsoft 365-compatible endpoint devices based on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Google Android operating systems. Progent can help your business to assess the numerous subscription plans available for Microsoft 365 and deploy 365 applications for your telecommuters in a way that delivers top business value. To find out about Progent's consulting expertise for Microsoft 365, go to Microsoft 365 consulting expertise.

Exchange Online Integration for Remote WorkersMicrosoft 365 Exchange Online is one of the most widely used applications in Azure-hosted Microsoft 365 product line. Microsoft 365 Exchange Online offers the advantages of reduced spending for data center infrastructure, easier management, dynamic scaling, high availability, and other benefits inherent with public clouds. Microsoft has designed Microsoft 365 Exchange Online to run seamlessly with local Exchange environments, allowing customers to create hybrid cloud/onsite networks. Progent's certified Exchange consultants are available for occasional help to guide you past tough technical roadblocks and can also provide comprehensive project management outsourcing to ensure your remote workers have convenient and secure access to your Exchange Online deployment. For details Progent's support services for Exchange Online, go to Exchange Online configuration and troubleshooting consulting.

Amazon AWS Integration Services for TelecommutersAmazon Web Services (AWS) is a trailblazer in the public cloud computing arena and is the world's top provider of cloud services. Progent offers rapid and affordable online access to cloud connectivity consultants who can help your organization to plan, implement, manage, and debug hybrid IT networks that incorporate Amazon AWS cloud-based services with on-premises data centers and with other popular cloud platforms like Azure. Progent also offers the skills of Cisco-certified CCIE networking consultants to assist you to create a high-uptime network model so your users have a consistent computing experience whether they are working from your main office, a branch office, at home, or on the move. For details about Progent's consulting expertise for Amazon AWS, visit Amazon AWS integration services.

Google Cloud Platform Integration for TeleworkersGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) is a popular collection of public cloud services that offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service products. Progent's certified Microsoft, Linux, and Cisco experts can help your organization to scale your existing IT resources with the Google Cloud, and Progent's DBA consultants can show you how to make your critical apps cloud ready so your remote workers can benefit fully from Google Cloud services. Progent can help you to deploy VMs on GCP Compute Engine, plan an efficient storage system with Google Cloud Storage, and simplify identity control for remote workers with GCP Cloud Identity services. Progent can also assist your organization to use GCP's unified management tools to control and track your GCP environment. For information, go to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) integration support.

Help Desk Support for Telecommuters
A sudden, company-wide switchover to a telecommuter business model, which might be motivated by an epidemic or as an element of a disaster recovery process, can overwhelm even the most efficient in-house Support Desk. Progent's Call Center services make it possible for organizations of any size to outsource or expand their Help Desk by using Progent's remote Technical Response Center (TRC) services.

  • Progent's Standard Help Desk support services utilize Progent's nationwide team of remote IT support specialists combined with enterprise-class trouble ticketing and tracking technology to provide an economical, advanced Call Center. Progent's Standard Help Desk Services provide a comprehensive solution that handles all aspects of remote Level 1 desktop support from initial help requests to trouble ticket creation, screen sharing, problem resolution, and incident reporting. A web-based User's Service Portal enables telecommuters to check or edit their current trouble tickets, add information, and upload screenshots and attachments. Desktop support services are provided at a substantial price reduction off Progent's ordinary Level 1 technical service rates, and Progent makes available optional fast escalation to Level 2 and Level 3 support experts to deal with advanced problems. For more information, visit Progent's Standard Helpdesk Services for small and mid-size companies.
  • Progent's Call Desk Supplemental Service allows your company to augment your current Help Desk organization by sharing responsibilities for Call Center support seamlessly between your in-house IT support organization and Progent's extensive team of desktop support engineers and subject matter experts. Progent's shared Support Desk service is based on a co-sourcing support model based on the number one professional services automation (PSA) platform for handling service requests and ticketing, assigning responsibility, tracking progress, and producing management reports. For information about how Progent's Support Desk Augmentation Services can enable your company to deliver best-in-class desktop support to your from-home workers, refer to Progent's Call Desk augmentation Services.

Security and Compliance for Teleworkers
At-home staff members commonly use their own computing devices and often operate in an unsecured physical environment. This situation multiplies their susceptibility to malware threats and calls for judicious configuration of corporate firewalls, AV tools, multi-factor authentication, remote endpoint monitoring, thorough user education, and the development of security policies based on leading practices. Progent's seasoned team of data security solutions consultants can assist you to design, deploy and manage a compliant security solution that protects vital information assets in networks that incorporate at-home workers.

Firewall Integration Services for At-Home WorkersFirewalls enable companies to create a network that can be securely utilized by local users and by teleworkers, mobile workers, suppliers, clients, and other stakeholders. Next-generation firewall devices permit you to assign and manage different permissions to different classes of users and to expand your network and adjust your security profile as your company evolves and as cyber threats grow more complex. Progent supports both new and legacy firewall devices from all leading manufacturers like Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard, Juniper, SonicWall and Fortinet. To find out more about Progent's firewall configuration expertise, refer to firewall configuration and support services.

Remote Security Monitoring and Management Services for TeleworkersRemote Endpoint Monitoring makes it easy to track the various computers utilized by remote workers and either block or identify and respond to modern threats like ransomware. With Progent's ProSight Active Security Monitoring services, a lightweight agent is put on every protected endpoint, watching all activity and using state-of-the-art behavioral threat analysis from SentinelOne to identify new attacks before they can spread. When a cyberattack is discovered, ProSight ASM instantly disconnects the infected device from the corporate network to contain the threat. Since the ProSight ASM software agent is self-contained, endpoints remain protected even when they are offline. Progent is a SentinelOne Partner, dealer, and integrator. To find out more about ProSight Active Security Monitoring, visit remote endpoint security monitoring for an at-home workforce.

Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for TelecommutersProgent's Duo MFA Managed Services utilize Cisco's Duo cloud technology to defend against stolen passwords through the use of two-factor authentication (2FA). Duo supports one-tap identity confirmation with iOS, Google Android, and other out-of-band devices. With Duo 2FA, when you sign into a protected application and give your password you are requested to confirm who you are on a unit that only you possess and that is accessed using a separate network channel. A broad range of out-of-band devices can be used for this second form of authentication such as an iPhone or Android or wearable, a hardware token, a landline phone, etc. You may register several verification devices. To find out more about Duo two-factor identity validation services, see Duo MFA two-factor authentication services for at-home workers.

Security Audit Services for At-Home WorkersSecurity Audits can assess the exposure of your information system to all classes of outside and local security attacks for a network that includes telecommuters. Progent can run remote, automated security analysis scanning for rapidly and affordably uncovering a broad range of security gaps that can be found via the Internet. Progent's endpoint security assessment experts, which can be managed by security experts with top certifications such as CISM, ISSAP, and GIAC, can assist your company to evaluate your workflows and policies and assess your WAN infrastructure to allow you to design top-level protection for your teleworkers.

NodeZero Pentetration Testing for At-Home WorkersHorizon3.ai's NodeZero Penetration Testing Platform is a leading-edge penetration test (pentest) product family that can deliver autonomous testing of your work-from-home connectivity solution and your internal and perimeter networks so you can expose, prioritize, fix, and confirm cybersecurity weaknesses before malicious hackers can take advantage of them. Progent can assist you to use NodeZero to perform thorough penetration tests of your network perimeter and your internal network in order to determine your current security posture. Progent can also assist you to strengthen your existing network security and can help you to plan and deploy a unified cybersecurity ecosystem that simplifies management and delivers maximum cyber defense for on-prem, cloud-based, at-home, and perimeter IT resources. To find out more details about Progent's threat analysis solutions based on on NodeZero's pentest products, see Consulting Support for NodeZero's PEN Test Products.

Download White Paper: Securing a Work-From-Home (WFH) Network
To read or download a white paper about critical things to concentrate on for securing a network that includes work-from-home staff, click:
Securing a Work-From-Home Network White Paper. (PDF - 2.4 MB)

Data Protection for Remote Workers
The field of Data Protection covers saving and recovering vital data so as to prevent data loss and minimize restoration time and effort in the event of storage failures due to equipment issues, programming glitches, user mistakes, malware, or other causes. Reliable data protection solutions can be particularly difficult to architect and maintain in hybrid environments that incorporate local data centers, public clouds, and at-home workers.

  • Backup/Recovery solutions for at-home workers must cover multiple kinds of user-owned endpoint devices. Progent can provide quick remote access to experts knowledgeable about a broad range of products for protection Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux/UNIX powered servers and desktop computers as well as notebooks, iPads and handhelds. Leading backup/restore solutions supported by Progent's data protection experts include Barracuda Backup, Microsoft Azure Backup, Symantec Backup Exec, Acronis Backup and Recovery, Mozy, and Time Machine. To back up data distributed across a hybrid network, Progent offers ProSight Data Protection Services (DPS), a backup/recovery service that utilizes cloud-based storage and includes granular restore and centralized management.
  • Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) plans often envision scenarios that call for a temporary changeover to a work-at-home environment. Progent's senior disaster recovery preparedness experts and business continuity specialists can assist your business to produce, document and validate a DR/BC plan that includes the process of moving to an at-home workforce.

Unified Management for an At-Home Workforce
Microsoft has rebranded and rebundled its endpoint management platforms under the title Microsoft Endpoint Manager, which encompasses Intune for cloud-based management of remote endpoints and Configuration Manager for managing onsite computers. Microsoft Endpoint Manager features a unified environment for protecting critical data by managing on-premises, mobile, and home-based endpoint devices.

Intune
Intune is a component of Microsoft's Endpoint Management family that also includes Microsoft Configuration Manager. Intune is a cloud service for managing and protecting remote computers and applications. Remote endpoint computers can be user owned or company owned. Network admins managing the enrolled endpoint devices of telecommuters can use Intune to provision and validate applications on managed devices, push updates and certificates, configure policies for permission to access information and networks, manage passwords, create VPN connections, determine how teleworkers share data, set up threat defense, verify security compliance, and wipe sensitive data from lost, stolen or deactivated endpoint devices. Microsoft Intune can be used with iOS/iPadOS, Google Android, Windows, and macOS/OS X devices. For information about Microsoft Intune and how Progent can help you to use Microsoft's Endpoint Management to administer the devices of your teleworkers, go to Intune telecommuter endpoint management consultants.

VMware Workspace ONE
VMware Workspace ONE is a feature-rich unified MDM platform that allows network managers to keep remote endpoints up to date and secure. Workspace ONE uses VMware AirWatch for unified endpoint management combined with VMware's Horizon virtual application delivery platform for identity control, app management, and configuration management of endpoint devices. Workspace ONE runs with endpoints powered by Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, or popular distributions of Linux. VMware Workspace ONE is offered by subscription as a cloud service or as an on-premises product through a one-time purchase. Key capabilities of Workspace ONE include fast remote provisioning of out-of-the-box laptops, quick onboarding of new employees, policy setting and enforcement for all categories of devices, aggregated management reporting and analytics, an email encryption gateway, and tight integration with Microsoft applications and cloud products. To learn about Progent's support for VMware Workspace ONE, refer to VMware Workspace ONE mobile endpoint management expertise.

Contact Progent for Telecommuter Expertise
To contact Progent about building and maintaining an efficient work-from-home solution for your Carlsbad, California organization, call 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.